The Year of Moving Forward

At our 4 person wedding reception in DC

Monday, February 18, 2008

Bush in Africa vs Obama's Roots in Africa

Today is the one year anniversary of Bessemer Opinions!!!President Bush is in Africa, visiting a country that seems to like him. While he promotes PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) in Tanzania, republican strategists have other goals for his trip. Kenneth Walsh of U.S. News and World Report surmises that GOP leaders are hoping the trip will soften opposition to Bush among African Americans and help the GOP nominee (McCain) make “inroads into the black vote this fall.”

Well I am not African American but let’s just pretend for a moment. On the one hand we have the president, dilly dallying around the Continent continuing his commitment to spend millions of dollars fighting AIDS. On the other hand we have Barack Obama, who has actual roots in Kenya and realizes that Africa is more than just a photo op stop.

Well, sort of. A photo op doesn’t hurt. Here’s Obama in 2006 speaking at the University of Nairobi in Kenya. Hear a little from his sister, Auma Obama, and Barack about their father and Obama’s views of Africa today (2006).

I don’t think there is any chance the GOP candidate would get more than a handful of black votes if Barack is the Dem’s candidate. Same for Clinton if she is the candidate, actually.

In Birmingham the City Council will begin voting electronically, but the real news out of this story is that there will be live web streaming of council meetings with time stamps added so the public can later watch particular agenda items, according to this article in the Bham News.

Can you imagine if the Bessemer Council acquired this type of system? The public could actually watch council meetings, either live or archived. And for only $96,000. That is what it cost Birmingham. Surely the council can find a hundred grand here or there to do this.